Many Christian pastors and thinkers of my generation have been deeply influenced by the teaching and writing of Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. When I was a theological student, Brueggemann was a professor at Eden Theological Seminary and I graduated from Chicago Theological Seminary, a sister institution. The study of the Hebrew Scriptures in Seminary was a powerful experience for me. My principal teacher of Hebrew Scripture, Dr. André LaCocque, dedicated his life to the study of Hebrew Scripture partly in response to the actions of his Reformed Church pastor father inspired the family to offer safe haven for a Jewish family during World War II. Among the families of their parish was The Tournay family. Tournay was a local leader in the Resistance. Their son, Jean, was arrested and later died in a concentration camp. Their daughter, Claire became André’s close friend. Their shared grief over the death of Jean was part of a budding relationship that became a life partnership. I attended seminary 30 years after the war, but the stories of courage, sacrifice, and heroism combined with solid biblical research to shape a teacher who was an inspiration to me. After the retirement of my Christian Education Professor, Ross Snyder midway through my seminary career, Dr. LaCocque became my academic advisor. Among the lessons he stirred in my was a lifelong interest in the teachings of his colleague, Walter Brueggemann.

It is interesting to me that I continue to be shaped by both teachers throughout my life and career as a pastor. LaCocque’s passion for what he called the Prime Testament and his use of Hebrew law and tradition to teach of God’s love inspired countless sermons. Brueggemann’s passion for the prophets as expressions of the deepest moral demands of religion kept me reading his prolific offering of books.

I brought up Brueggemann once again in a conversation last evening. A group of us were discussing the moral imperative of speaking and acting in response to climate crisis and the devastating effects of global warming, environmental destruction, and overconsumption. While science can provide humanity with the harsh truth and information that is needed to invoke an immediate response, many people with good intentions find themselves immobilized by the problems of creation care. The issues are simply too big and too complex for individual response. While we know the truth of what we must do and the radical changes that are required, we find ourselves sinking into despair and inaction because of the scale of the problems we face.

Brueggemann offers a different perspective and an invitation for us to take the truth seriously, but not stop with speaking the truth. In a small volume, “Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks,” Brueggemann calls faithful people to follow the example of the Biblical prophets by naming reality in a culture of ideology. Speaking the truth is a challenge in a social and political climate of ideologies. It is, however, a necessary task. Applied to the climate crisis, the truth of scientific discoveries must be proclaimed over and over again in the face of ideologies driven by profit and short term gain.

Proclaiming reality amid ideology is only one task amid others, however. For we live in a world where even when reality is proclaimed, denial exists. Brueggemann argues that the prophetic response to denial is genuine grief. We meet the denial of those who seek to overlook the scientific evidence of global warming by expressing our grief over the melting of the glaciers, the dying of the coral reefs, and the extinction of species. Reading the prophets with the insights about grief gained from Brueggemann’s teachings has opened my eyes to their grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of her people.

The prophets do not stop with proclaiming grief amid denial. They carry a powerful message of hope amid despair. Speaking honestly of grief, we are called to move through that grief to discover a hope that is more than just a set of happy thoughts, but rather a living reality that calls us from despair.

Each of these tasks - proclaiming reality amid ideology, grief amid denial, and hope amid despair - is critical to a faithful response to the reality in which we find ourselves. While science provides the information to proclaim reality and experience provides the emotional energy to proclaim grief, hope demands faith. Hope will not come from science or experience alone.

The proclamation of hope is an essential task of the church in our time. It is why it is important for us to have these difficult conversations in our houses of faith. The energy and wisdom of a small group of faithful persons inspires me to continue the ministry of teaching and faith formation. Inspired by powerful teachers, I find myself striving to carry forward their legacy in my teaching of others.

And so we continue to speak of faith together. Our thoughts are incomplete and our conversations unfinished, but we return again and again to the difficult subjects and difficult tasks of our time. Together we form a vision of the future and together we work toward the vocation to which we are being called. Sometimes our emotions are strong and threaten to overwhelm. Sometimes the work is hard and our exhaustion is real. Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in the same place for a long period of time. Yet we continue. We meet. We share. We learn together.

Of all of the tasks of the ministry, I find teaching and leading faith formation to be the most critical and the most engaging. I feel truly blessed that my career has brought me to this point where I can focus my ministry on faith formation. In a way it reminds me of how my ministry began decades ago - with a passion for learning and speaking the truth in a sometimes hostile world. Fortunately for me, there are truly great teachers who have helped me discover my life’s work. With joy, I continue to share their lessons with others.